In light of recent media coverage of the General Medical Council (GMC) suspension of Adam Osborne, ¹ we became interested in the issue of doctors prescribing to non-patients: friends, family and self. The GMC recommends that doctors do not self-prescribe or prescribe to family and friends, except in an emergency. ²

We audited prescribing practices among doctors working in London to determine whether GMC guidelines are being followed. We composed a 13-question online questionnaire about prescribing practices, and invited doctors, all above F1 training level, to complete this by email.

We emailed 120 doctors and received 72 completed questionnaires; 52.1% of the respondents were female, 53.4% had more than 6 years' experience as a doctor and 66.0% had prescribed to non-patients. Of that last group, 93.3% did not inform the person's regular general practitioner, with 95.0% feeling it was unnecessary to do so. The most commonly prescribed medications were antibiotics (77.3%), followed by analgesics (25.0%) and the oral contraceptive pill (18.2%). Of note, a number of respondents stated that they had prescribed sleeping pills (16.8%) and smoking cessation medications (8.5%).

Most doctors felt it appropriate to prescribe antibiotics, analgesics and inhalers, and some felt it was acceptable to prescribe the oral contraceptive pill and antipsychotic medication, to family and friends; 58.9% admitted to self-prescribing.

Although the majority of doctors had used private prescriptions, approximately a fifth had used National Health Service prescriptions (21%). Finally, 55.3% reported never reading the GMC guidelines on prescribing.

Our results show that a large proportion of doctors are not adhering to GMC guidelines on medication prescribing. In many cases this may be attributable to simply not reading the guidelines. We suggest that the GMC considers publicising its prescribing guidance more widely to ensure good medical practice and to avoid the consequences of escalating poor prescribing habits.